Welcome back! In honor of AAPI Month, our May newsletters will feature important and often untold stories from South Asian history. Today’s focus is on California’s Punjabi-Mexican communities, a hybrid culture that unexpectedly thrived under the political landscape of the 20th century.

PopShift Music Festival VIP tickets are already sold out! Don’t miss out on our most anticipated event and grab the remaining tickets while they last. Then, let’s explore everything we know about what could be the collab of the year — Drake x Nooran Sisters?! Finally, we recap last night’s Met Gala.

— Rosh

The Punjabi-Mexican Connection

¿Qué pasa or ki haal hai? In the early days of US immigration, a surprising and historically forgotten community developed: Punjabi-Mexicans.

Quick History
At the beginning of the 1900s, Punjabi men began to leave India for after being recruited by railroad companies who needed a cheap labor source to help build the Canadian Pacific Railway. Many of those immigrants left with hopes of making quick money to pay off their agricultural debtors in Punjabi farmlands.

Due to poor working conditions and wages, these men began searching for better opportunities. Eventually, the Punjabis in Canada migrated down the West Coast to California, where they began to settle in agricultural areas and return to their familiar way of farming.

Meanwhile, Mexican women escaping the violence of the 1910 Revolution began to cross the Texas border, migrating up West with a similar dream for a better life. They found work on the same farms as the Punjabi men, creating a natural opportunity for cultural exchange.

How did Punjabi-Mexican matrimonies happen?
Discriminatory legislation made things difficult for the Punjabi immigrants. The 1913 California Alien Land Act prohibited them from owning the farmland they worked, and the 1917 Barred Zone Immigration Act prevented new non-white immigrants from entering the country. These barriers made it nearly impossible to bring Indian brides into the US.

With time, they instead began to marry the Mexican women. Interracial marriages in California were banned at the time, however Hispanic and South Asian were both lumped into the same othered “Brown” Category, making the relationships permissible. Their proximity to each other, the similarities between their cultures, and the simple lack of other options ultimately led to union between (what would have otherwise been) two unlikely communities.

Soon, Punjabi-Mexican families flourished. Many had several children, developing a culture of their own that was an amalgamation of both their ethnic roots.

Why did the marriages stop?
In 1946, the Luce-Cellar Bill was passed, granting Indians citizenship and therefore the opportunity to bring wives from India. As Punjabi women arrived in the US, they looked down on the existing Punjabi-Mexican community. Mexican women were thrown out of the Gurdwaras that they had helped build and fund.

Remnants of the community are still present today as the children of these families carry their Punjabi-Mexican heritage. This history serves as a reminder of the importance of standing in solidarity and the powerful ways communities can come together to create something beautiful.

Editor’s Note: An unreviewed draft of this story had originally been published by mistake. It has since been updated to better reflect historical accuracy and PopShift’s style.

PopShift Music Festival — This Lineup is 🔥

Following the Music + Arts Mixer, PopShift continues its festivities on May 20 at the iconic Irving Plaza at 5 p.m. with a musical concert. We present a strong lineup of accomplished artists paving the way for South Asian excellence in the music industry — Jay Sean, Jonita Gandhi, Talwiinder, Sanjoy, HYDR x PDNY, Rhea Raj, and Zeemuffin.

These 8 talented musicians will supply constant and addicting beats across a diversity of genres for an evening that is guaranteed to leave a lasting impression on New York City and the larger scene of South Asians’ thriving musical talent. After Party tickets can be purchased here.

Nooran Sisters x Drake Collab OTW???

No, this isn’t AI. Drake may soon actually be collaborating with everyone’s favorite Sufi singing duo – The Nooran Sisters.

Composed by the legendary A.R. Rahman and sung by the talented Nooran Sisters, Patakha Guddi isn’t your average Bollywood song. The song’s lyrical themes of freedom and pure wildness resonated deeply with its intended South Asian audience, but now it’s transcending beyond us.

We first heard Patakha Guddi in the 2014 film Highway starring Alia Bhatt, but nearly a decade later, a Drill Remix of the track went viral on social media. Last summer, over 500K TikToks featured the sound, earning over 100M collective views. The song’s lyricist Ishrad Kamil noted, “this shows the universal appeal of the track and its lyrics.” He was right.

What was a spiritually liberating anthem for Qawwali and Bollywood lovers soon became an EDM sensation, with artists like DJ Snake and Wade sampling the track in their own remix.

Now Drake has officially hopped onto the track. In a recent interview with BBC India, the Nooran sisters confirmed that Drake has bought and dubbed a second version of Patakha Guddi. Though there’s still little information on when the song will release, the possibility alone has excited fans everywhere. Here’s hoping for the Drake x Nooran Sisters summer anthem we all need.

Help us expand our newsletter! We’re looking for writers and new music to share.

South Asians Serving Looks at the Met Gala

To most, the first Monday of May is like any other start to the week. But to others, Met Gala Monday is fashion’s most prestigious and glamorous night.

Yesterday, we saw South Asian celebrities and talent walk up the iconic Met steps in designer couture that paid tribute to this year’s theme — “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty.” Dressed “in honor of Karl,” only the most A-list of the A-list were able to attend this annual fundraiser for the MET’s Costume Institute.

Among them?

• Alia Bhatt in Prabal Gurung 

• Isha Ambani in Prabal Gurung

• Natasha Poonawalla in Schiaparelli

• Priyanka Chopra Jonas in Maison Valentino

• Mindy Kaling in SIMKHAI

• Huma Abedin in Fendi

Other Notable News

• Raghav and Tesher released the music video for “Desperado.”

• Ayushmann Khurrana and Neeti Mohan announced an upcoming US tour.

• Hatecopy is opening her solo exhibition in NYC this week.

• Polite Society broke $1M+ on their opening weekend at the box office.

•  Ranveer Singh made an appearance at the reopening of Tiffany & Co. on 5th Ave.

Listen to the PopShift Playlist on Spotify.

Writers: Saumya Monga, Roshni Lalchandani

Editors: Raghu Alla, Roshni Lalchandani